Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to synthetic biology, especially using microalgae for the production of biofuels.
Related Art
Biodiesel is one of the most promising renewable transportation fuels that have achieved remarkable success worldwide. However, the current contribution of biodiesel to global transportation fuel consumption is only 0.14%. Oil-rich microalgae have been demonstrated to be a promising alternative source of lipids for biodiesel production. To enhance the economical cost-effectiveness and environmental sustainability, many strategies were proposed and extensive studies have been carried out to attempt lipid overproduction in microalgae. These approaches include, but not limit to, manipulating the nutritional or cultivation conditions and genetic engineering microalgae strain. overexpression key enzymes in the lipid precursor TAG biosynthetic pathways. Nevertheless, significant challenges remain as these approaches seem to be either harmful to cell growth or lack of success due to the emerging of “secondary bottlenecks”
Challenges for algal biofuels include that there is no “ideal” algal species identified. Lipid accumulation tightly coupled to nutrient stress. Lipid pathway gene over-expression is largely unsuccessful. Efficient fuel production will require pathway engineering and there is only a rudimentary understanding of metabolic regulation in algae. Thus, a systems-level understanding of metabolic regulation in microalgae is needed.